We’ve all been there. No matter your age, gender, race or
creed, we can all relate to the living room floor.

It’s where many of us took our first steps. Where we
learned to play that one family game that, years later, still
brings a smile to our face. Where, for some of us, we learned the
meaning of the word timeout.

And for 14-year-old Kate McFarland, it’s where earlier
this year she found inspiration to pursue the dream of playing
college lacrosse.

Kate’s family hosted five U.S. women’s national team
players in January for clinics with local youth and high school
players in Roswell, Ga. Liz McFarland, a board member of the
Roswell Youth Lacrosse Association (RYLA) — and mother to
eighth-grade triplets Alex, Kate and Sam — led the effort to
bring Team USA south for the winter.

“National team players are great examples of what a young
woman can achieve if she sticks with sports,” Liz McFarland
said. “Girls in our community have a hunger for high-level
lacrosse instruction, especially from women who are young and
relatable.”

Team USA players Brittany Dashiell, Katrina Dowd, Amber Falcone,
Mikey Meagher and Jenn Russell led 140 youth and high school girls
from Georgia, South Carolina and Florida in a day of on-field
instruction, just some of the nearly 2,000 boys and girls players
to participate in 35 U.S. men’s and women’s national
team clinics since January 2012. High school players also heard
firsthand about the college lacrosse experience and had one-on-one
discussions about the realities of recruiting with some of the best
players in today’s game.

“One of our goals is to expose the game to different areas
where lacrosse is growing,” said Falcone, a six-year veteran
of the U.S. women’s team program and 2009 All-World defender
who will play in her second World Cup this summer. “There
aren’t a lot of role models out there for young girls’
lacrosse players to look up to. We’re passionate about being
those role models.”

“It’s my favorite part of my job,” said
Nathaniel Badder, director of national teams for US Lacrosse, who
along with Stacie Wentz (manager), Cerra Cardwell (fundraising
manager) and two national teams sub-committees coordinates all
aspects of the U.S. National Teams Program. “Watching kids
swarm our national team players after games or clinics to get that
chance to rub elbows with lacrosse celebrities is what our work is
all about.”

***

Bonnie Rosen, a three-time U.S. women’s World Cup team
veteran and 2010 National Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee, has
remained involved in the national teams program leadership since
retiring from playing in 2005.

“My experience with the national team changed my entire
adult life,” Rosen said. “Being empowered as a woman
and becoming a team leader meant everything to my professional
development.“

Rosen began volunteering with US Lacrosse upon its inception in
1998, serving as an athletes council representative to the new
board of directors. The former All-American at Virginia and current
coach at Temple now is one of five members of the women’s
national team sub-committee that oversees program policies and
procedures, helps select national team coaches and player
evaluators and drives participation in local outreach events. Rosen
previously served on the US Lacrosse Board of Directors, among
numerous other volunteer roles within the organization’s
leadership structure.

The U.S. National Teams Program has functioned as an avenue for
building leaders, both current stars and future generations of
players.

“Team USA is the benchmark for how the game should be
played and how players should act,” Rosen said.

In addition to hosting roughly 30 clinics each year for youth
and high school players and coaches, Team USA launched at
October’s Stars and Stripes weekend in Northern California a
series of parent-daughter dinners that invite local youth families
to spend “An Evening with Team USA.” (The next event
will be held June 29 in Baltimore.) In December, members of the
men’s and women’s national team programs led free
clinics on Long Island for more than 300 youth players from
communities affected by Hurricane Sandy. And at January’s US
Lacrosse National Convention, presented by Champion, Rosen led an
initiative to bring inner-city Philadelphia kids to the event to
interact with the U.S. women’s team.

“I serve because I made the team, and learned how to give
back,” Rosen said.

***

And so, after a full eight hours of clinics, Falcone and her
Team USA teammates spent that January evening sitting on the
McFarland’s living room floor with Kate and her brothers.

Katrina Dowd demonstrated her well-known stick tricks to the
boys’ amazement. Jenn Russell talked recruiting and the
importance of being a well-rounded student-athlete. Perhaps most
significantly, Kate heard and understood for the first time that
training above and beyond her team’s practices and games
— wall ball, individual fitness and strength training and
mental preparation — sets apart apart elite lacrosse
players.

“Parents can say it all we want, but hearing that sort of
advice from the best players in the world,” Liz McFarland
said. “It really sunk in for Kate.”

Said Falcone: “It’s what we do. We don’t think
twice about it.”

Matt Chittum, a youth coach and parent in Roanoke, Va., echoed
McFarland’s thoughts after a national team clinic in his
daughter’s hometown earlier in January.

“It is hard for girls here to find heroes in the game they
love — a player to emulate, a standard to try to meet,”
Chittum said. “For the girls who attended, this clinic went a
long way toward filling the gap.”

A portion of the proceeds from each national teams clinic
benefits the local US Lacrosse host chapter or league. The RYLA was
one of many local hosts to generously reinvest those funds into the
national teams program for future clinics and events geared toward
impacting kids across the country.

Following Team USA’s visit, the buzz remains palpable.

“Now that we have that connection, we can’t wait to
support Team USA at the World Cup this summer,” McFarland
said.

Perhaps they’ll find a comfortable perch on the living
room floor.

Fuel the Journey
Help send the U.S. women’s national team to the FIL
Women’s World Cup in Ontario this summer by making a secure
donation at uslacrosse.org/donate.

This article appears in the March issue of Lacrosse
Magazine,the flagship publication of US Lacrosse.
Don't get the mag? Join US
Lacrosse and its 400,000-plus members
today to start your subscription.